Locate Object

[Olaf the Stout]

My party has been using Locate Object to great effect in our campaign lately. It really seems like a great way to track down anything that may have been stolen from you. Considering how much ground you can cover in a city with the spell, it is almost too good a spell in an urban environment. With a radius of 400ft +40ft/level, anyone of high enough level to cast the spell can cover a good portion of your average-sized city with 1 casting.

I know that a this sheet of lead blocks the spell and stop it from working, but what other options are there? What spells are there that will foil or mislead Locate Object?

Nondetection is the first spell that springs to mind but are there any others?

Olaf the Stout

 

[Thanael]

As noted in the description Polymorph any Object fools it. So we can probably conclude that other polymorph type spells fool it too

Shrink Item could work if the item is turned to cloth.

Obscure Object is the "reverse spell" of Locate Object. 8 hours duration.

Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum has a 24 hour duration but blocks only divination(scrying).

Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion, Leomund's Secret Chest, Rope Trick and extraplanar containers in general should foil it. (portable hole, bag of holding, girdle of many pockets, heward's handy haversack, ....)

Sequester is the ultimate find-me-not spell.

I'm not sure if Watchware, Safeguarding and Secure have been converted to 3E... One of those (I believe Safeguarding) should work too. The others can protect an item or alert the owner if it is stolen.

Edit: Watchware(UE p53) [Sor/Wiz5] – You know when target object is touched. (from Unaproachable East.) I believe is has a greater range than alarm. Here's is the 2E version of it, complete with description

And then there's still lots of illusions and wards to protect items.

 

[Allegro]

I'm not sure if this will work, is an object in a bag of holding within 400 + feet? The object is technically in another dimension, right?

 

[thondar]

yes

 

[Allegro]

Yes the object is detectable or Yes sticking an object in a bag of holding trumps locate object?

 

[Random Axe]

Trumps LO because the Bag of Holding area is another dimension.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

As noted in the description Polymorph any Object fools it. So we can probably conclude that other polymorph type spells fool it too

Shrink Item could work if the item is turned to cloth.

Obscure Object is the "reverse spell" of Locate Object. 8 hours duration.

Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum has a 24 hour duration but blocks only divination(scrying).

Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion, Leomund's Secret Chest, Rope Trick and extraplanar containers in general should foil it. (portable hole, bag of holding, girdle of many pockets, heward's handy haversack, ....)

Sequester is the ultimate find-me-not spell.

I'm not sure if Watchware, Safeguarding and Secure have been converted to 3E... One of those (I believe Safeguarding) should work too. The others can protect an item or alert the owner if it is stolen.

And then there's still lots of illusions and wards to protect items.

Thanks dyx. That's very useful information.

I think Obscure Object is the one that I'm after in this case. I knew that there had to be a "reverse" spell for Locate Object but I couldn't remember what it was.

Personally, I hope that WotC cross reference these types of things in 4E (with page references), kind of like how they mention that Slow counters Haste.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Thanael]

Used to be (in 2E) that they were the same spell but reversible. I.e. you decide which one to memorize and there was only one spell description in the PHB for both.

As for references I find the Spell Path/Spell Threads systems very useful for this, where spells are grouped thematically. I use the old 2E lists from Paths of Power article in Dragon 216 for reference. Or SKR's simpler 3E Pathmagic. The best is probably the Spell Thread lists for the Eldritch Weaver class from Green Ronin's Advanced Player's Manual, but they're not available online. (Only this albeit very useful Eldritch Weaver site)

See also this thread.